I'm not going to be sad when I apply the top and bottom sheets. When toeing-in the the spacers, some of the 16-gauge nails would not go where I wanted them to. Had one even make a U-turn! Some of the spacers look like a mad-man went to town with a nail gun!

In one of your posts you wrote that a true craftsman can cover his mistakes. This applies here!

I really need to make a torsion box. Actually two of them would be nice. All I need to do first is become independently wealthy, build my 5,000 square foot dream shop and have about a half dozen wives. Give me a couple weeks. I have a few things to do first.

Looks very nice, EJ. A good bench is worth every bit of work you put into it.

I started with an oak board I paid way too much for from Lowes because I was on vacation from my real job, only had a couple days left and didn't want to wait for it to be shipped. In the end the shelves cost about $30 each and could probably be half that cost still using real wood.

I used my table saw to cut the slots for the metal tracks. I wanted to use 1/8" x 1/4" but they didn't have any so I bought the 1/8" by 1/2" they did have. It was horrible quality and I ended up using it until some that I ordered from McMaster-Carr arrived.

The stuff from Lowes was curved when it was sheared. But it had nice rounded edges. I bought the same stuff from McMaster-Carr but it was flat and much nicer metal. Also cost less.

The aluminum tube is about the same thickness, weight and hardness of that used for R/C helis. I wanted to use a clamping system instead of a set screw but the length of the wood didn't give me enough room at the end to go that route. Again, it was because the wood was 6' long and I would have had to lost one fixture per shelf.

As is it holds (12) 4-magnet fixtures or (9) 6-magnet fixtures assuming no accessories are attached that require the fixtures to be spread farther apart.

Another mistake I made was routing the shelves for the aluminum angle. I didn't measure the angle and ended up having to put the aluminum through my table saw to make it narrower.

Basically the top shelf mounts to the wall and all others hang from it. I set it up so I can mount the bottom shelf as well so the whole thing doesn't pull away from the wall when I'm taking fixtures from it.

It's really a weekend+ project if you have all your measurements and supplies instead of making it up as you go along.

The set screws suck. They have a very shallow hex molded in to receive an Allen wrench. They can't be tightened enough before the wrench slips. I thought of using thumb screws but didn't want them snagging my clothes every time I walked by.

Again, a clamp end by sawing a slot from the end into the hole for the tube then using a carriage bolt or whatever would be a better solution. Obviously it needs a bit more development.

But it's very low profile. It only sticks out from the wall 2". I have to un-mount some things where I plan to mount it.

The idea here is that I got tired of whacking into fixtures sticking straight out from the wall every time I walked by. My shop is very narrow as you can see in some of the photos - 10' x 30'. I have a jointer next to my bed because it won't fit in the shop.

Oh, forgot to mention. The rails are held in place with steel pins that are inserted in the back and go through both rails. I've never had good luck gluing metal using anything no matter how clean it was or how much I roughed it up. But I did glue the pins with polyurethane glue that foamed into the rails. They're never coming out again.

Images

This is a little storage unit on wheels I bought from a local JoAnn's Fabric when it was on double sale. Normally it's way over-priced around $90 or so. I think I paid about $45.00 for it. Holds lots of stuff but wish it had one more of the compartmented drawers in exchange for one of the ones that isn't.

Images

Forgot to mention about the shelves. You can see I drilled counter-sunk holes through them. That way they can bench mount as well which keeps them handy but off your building board. But I don't see me ever using them that way. Mounted on the wall is better. I need my bench space and I really don't like drilling holes in my bench for any reason.

Oh sorry. One more thing. What I'm telling you, EJ, is that you're not even close to being done. I think my mission is to torment you by ensuring you never actually get to build a model airplane ever again.

When I made my torsion box bench, I made the grid with a 3/4" hole in each web, and ONE hole through the outside wall of the grid. With the top, and the grid, and the bottom all ready to glue, spread an ample layer of glue on all the edges, line everything up, and set it together. Then I used a shop vacuum to evacuate the internal volume. I had the vacuum hose at an angle to the surface (on the outer hole) to create a bit of a leak so the shop vacuum was not screaming for mercy, but still pulling a little vacuum. I used original TiteBond, and I left the vacuum pulling for 45 minutes, and left the whole assembly undisturbed for the rest of the day

This procedure is analogous to vacuum bagging, but without the bag. I also used some weights, but the major 'clamping' force was provided by the atmosphere.

In the video, I notice he doesn't use a radial arm saw (which I find much faster), but rather the table saw, for making all those many crosscuts. A small criticism is his choice of finish for the top--wax--which can contaminate work which will subsequently receive a fine finish or be glued. Also I noticed he didn't bother to apply heavy pressure with the tip of the nailer to ensure contact between the pieces being nailed, something I always do. And he didn't use cauls to evenly spread the clamping pressure when gluing the mahogany frame veneers, nor even pads to keep those decorative pieces from being marred by the clamps.

On the old DIY shows David Marks would lay out a sheet of craft paper from a roll he had mounted on the end of the table for finishing. So how will that allow the microcrystalline wax to affect a glue up, especially when you're usually not laying the face to be glued on the work top?
Maybe DIY should have picked you to do the shows?

Something I did different from EJ Walsh here was laying the two sheets of MDF on top each other, then glueing the webs onto the top sheet and nailing in - no plastic. That seems to create an extra step maybe. You still have to flip it over for the second side. This table seems smaller than mine, but be careful, it will still be heavy. My toes found that out the hard way trying to flip it over by myself.
It will be plenty strong following David Marks process.

I really need to make a torsion box. Actually two of them would be nice. All I need to do first is become independently wealthy, build my 5,000 square foot dream shop and have about a half dozen wives. Give me a couple weeks. I have a few things to do first.

Looks very nice, EJ. A good bench is worth every bit of work you put into it.

HA!

Building the torsion box pretty easy. The only part that was tedious (in my own mind) was setting-up and leveling the 2 X 4 and 4 X 4 platform.

Oh sorry. One more thing. What I'm telling you, EJ, is that you're not even close to being done. I think my mission is to torment you by ensuring you never actually get to build a model airplane ever again.

HA! I can see kight at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully its NOT a train!

At this point I'm pretty sure I have enough of a System to build a model. The first "victim" will be a 1/6-scale Dave Platt (not Pica) Waco YMF-3 kit. As I build, I'll be keeping in mind what additional fixtures I need to make building life easier.

Your storage unit is nice! I've been wrestling with the storage question, and you may have just solved it. Thanks!